City destroyed temple destroyed...you’d think the message was clear that we are temples serving as priests in spirit and truth and we are NOT in need of helping to raise another temple to One Who was quite clear He didn’t need one made with human hands...WHO DID NOT EVEN WANT THE FIRST ONE...
Acts 17:24 KJV-the context..
Consider the context, and what cometh before, and after, and to whom written, and why:
Act 7 KJV
48 KJV Howbeit the most High
dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?"
Do not ignore what was before said, and to whom it was addressed, and why.
Acts 7:44-46
The context:Here Stephen is making it very clear to the Sanhedrin that it is fatal to ignore the facts pertaining to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Acts 7 KJV
44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen. 45 Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;46Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
The religious leaders of the Jews knew about the tabernacle- this was, and is basic history to the Hebrews. But did they know what it was, and why it was there? Stephen is addressing these questions in his argument(reasons for a conclusion) to them, and testifying to the authenticity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The tabernacle was a witness. And to what?The first thought is that It was a witness of the LORD God, for He abode in the holy Place. To king David, the LORD God spoke through the prophet- 2 Samuel 7:6 KJV:
"Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle."
Thus, the tabernacle was a witness of the LORD God, and to the LORD God, but that is not all. In Acts 7:44 KJV the LORD God told His servant Moses
"that
he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen."
The LORD God showed Moses "the real deal":
"And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount."-Exodus 25:40 KJV
"Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount." Hebrews 8:5 KJV
The tabernacle was to be a type, or a picture/symbol/pattern. Of what or who is it a type? The Lord Jesus Christ. For eg., the altar is a picture of the cross, and the shed blood of the new covenant. The "mercy seat" is the propitiation referred to in Romans 3:25 KJV- for our sins. And hence, this gives meaning to the Saviour's words, speaking of the OT in its entirety- "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me"(John 5:39 KJV).
The tabernacle was the center of worship for the Jews under the law of Moses. They could not approach a holy LORD God in any other place, for the LORD God was there in it. He showed this to the Israelites ,even while they were in the wilderness, by revealing Himself as a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. The glory of God was present with them:
"So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night." Numbers 9:16 KJV
Moving forward in time, after the temple was built, the Jews had to go to Jerusalem to worship-no choice. And hence, the Lord Jesus Christ, at eight days old,is taken to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord, per Luke 2:22 KJV. Later, at age 12, He goes to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast of the Passover. Thus, they could not worship the LORD God anywhere else. The LORD God was there in the tabernacle. He was there later in the temple. Even those Jews, and proselytes, who were "afar off"(Acts 2:39 KJV), from foreign lands made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast days, as was true at the time of Pentecost. Survey Acts 2:5 KJV:
"And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven."
The tabernacle was the center of the LORD God's dealing with His people; but was only a type, or picture, or pattern, of "the real deal." It's intent was to direct God's chosen people to the Lord Jesus Christ(Gal. 3:24 KJV)
The tabernacle was a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, and Stephen's mission was to open the blind Sanhedrin's eyes.
For forty years the Hebrews carried the tabernacle across the wilderness, and finally under Joshua's leadership(another type of the Lord Jesus Christ), it was brought into the promised Land. Joshua, a deliverer, brought the entire nation into the land, and drove out the pagan inhabitants. The Lord Jesus Christ, as the anti-type,will again deliver the Jews from all their enemies, and give to them a promised land, the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Acts 7:45 KJV gives the credit of this deliverance to the LORD God, and without the tabernacle, He would not have been present with them to perform such an act. But they did not understand the purpose of the tabernacle. They were to put their faith in the one who commanded them to build the tabernacle, the one Who lived in the tabernacle, and not in the physical box itself. This is where they did "error." They took more pride in the physical structure, than the one who commanded it. As an example- the 12 in Matthew 24:1 KJV came to the Lord Jesus Christ, to point out to Him the buildings of the temple. They had the LORD God Himself with them, and yet they were lusting/glorying in the man-made structure. And hence, the context of Acts 7:48-49 KJV...
"the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands;...... what house will ye build me? "
The Lord Jesus Christ tells the 12, in Matthew 24:2 KJV :
"And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
They were clueless here.
Today, obviously, there is no temple in Jerusalem, or anywhere else in the world. Are we to conclude then, that the LORD God is inaccessible? Under the law, they could only contact the LORD God in the tabernacle, or in the temple. In this present dispensation, we don't need the temple, because we do have "the real deal." We need not desire a type/pattern/ picture, since the Christ lives in our hearts. All earthly buildings are temporary and no structure made on this earth will last forever. If a building lasts for a couple of hundred years, it is a precious heritage- but still temporary. Did the Sanhedrin realize that the temple in Jerusalem was temporary? Had they stopped to consider that this was the third temple built by Israel? Solomon's temple lasted until the captivity. Then Ezra built it again after the Babylonian exile. The one in the four "gospels", and Acts is called Herod's temple-it took 46 years to build. The LORD God appointed, and approved the temple, but the Jews misunderstood, and misinterpreted its reality and purpose.
Stephen sought to direct the attention of the Sanhedrin to the reality of the temple, in that it totally pointed to the coming Messiah, the Christ, the LORD Jesus Christ-their Messiah/Christ. They were performing the fatal act of blotting Him out of their minds-the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit..
Acts 7:47-50 KJV-the context
Where is the LORD God? Where does He live? The religious leaders of the Jews had a false hope. They had a beautiful temple, made exactly like Solomon's temple. They were confident that the LORD God was with them, dwelling in the temple in the holy of holies. Wrong assumption on their part-Stephen's argument...
"But Solomon built him an house. Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?Hath not my hand made all these things?"
Solomon, David's Son, built the great temple in the city of David, Jerusalem. At the time of the dedication of that temple, after the king prayed, 2 Chr. 5:14 KJV says...
"...
for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God."
The LORD God commanded Israel to build a sanctuary. There, He could meet with them.
The structure was made with hands, and that was the place, the only place, they might approach the holy LORD God.
So, the context of Stephen's "the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands"?
How could the LORD God of creation, the vast universe,the one who filleth all in all, be confined to such a small space? Speaking about the temple, Solomon said in 1 Kings 8:27....
"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?"
How then, could one think that temple,"made with hands," would contain Him? The temple in Jerusalem was called God's house, even by the Lord Jesus Christ:
"And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not
my Father's house an house of merchandise." John 2:16 KJV
If the LORD God did not dwell there, how could it be called His house? It was the place in which God chose to meet with His people, as was the demand of the law of Moses. So, at the time of Acts, the glory of God was not filling the temple in Jerusalem. First, consider when the temple was rebuilt. In the book of Ezra ,where He supervised the rebuilding of the temple, there is no mention of the glory of God entering, or dwelling in the temple, as it had both in the Tabernacle in the wilderness and in the temple built by Solomon. The temple which existed in Jerusalem during the Acts period was known as Herod's Temple, and was started in 20 B.C., and completed in 26 A.D. This temple was truly the work of man, "made with hands," and there was no God-given authority to build it.
Another reason that the glory of God did not fill the temple during the Acts period:When the Lord Jesus Christ hung on the cross, the veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom-Matthew 27:51 KJV...
"And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;"
As it was true that the LORD God dwelt in that holy place, and no man could look upon His glory and live, except the priest once each year, then what would have happened to those worshiping in the temple?
At the time the veil was rent, the LORD God ceased to dwell in any temple made with hands. It had been the brain-child of the king de facto, and Stephen goes on to prove this by quoting from the prophet Isaiah, in chapter 66:1 KJV...
"Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?"
Heaven is the throne of the LORD God, and that is where He dwells now. So why is it that men build a church, a shrine, a holy place, using man's terms and wisdom, and treat it as a dwelling place of God? The Apostle Paul, in his sermon on Mars Hill made a similar statement in Acts 17: 24 KJV, when he said,
"God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, Neither is worshipped with men's hands."
Where is God now? God the Father is in the third heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ is in the third heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father (Romans 8:34 KJV). According to Acts 2:34-35 KJV, the Lord Jesus Christ is on the right hand of the Father, until all His foes are made His footstool, and that will be when He returns to set up His millennial kingdom, as King, on earth. And then will the feast of Tabernacles be realized-God with us.
That is the context. The end.
